Abstract: The force and deformation of building structures subjected to vehicular impact can be accurately simulated by detailed numerical models which increase the computational cost significantly. However, it is the structure rather than the vehicle that should be focused on in the design of building structures against the impact loading. Therefore, to improve the computational efficiency without losing the accuracy of the numerical analysis, a simplified model of vehicles impacting columns in the oblique direction (45°) is proposed based on the energy conservation principle and the influence of the impact direction on the deformation and damage of the columns is studied. The analysis results show that the impact force, impulse, deformation and strain of columns can be captured accurately by the simplified vehicle model. Compared with the front impact (90°), the energy dissipation of the vehicle is smaller in the oblique impact (45°), which leads to larger deformation and more serious damage of the columns.